Her Choice, His Regret
by NsCvIuS
Summary: Tensions are high in the CBI, and to make things worse, Lisbon's team is following the trail of a serial arsonist/killer who is toying with the CBI team. One team member will return in a bodybag. Who won't be going home? Warning: possible character death.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my second fanfiction, so suggestions for improvement are very welcome! Let me know if this story gets confusing at any point, and please leave your feedback! All are welcomed and greatly appreciated!

Summary: The CBI team is falling apart. And to make things worse, they're faced with a case that takes them across the West Coast due to a string of arsons/murders all linked through one common bond-fixation on the CBI team. While out of state, Lisbon has to make a life-altering decision, and the shattered team will return to the CBI with fewer team mates than when they left, and a team mate in a body bag. Who won't be going home?

Rated: T

Categories: Drama/Tragedy

Pairing(s): Chisbon, Jace (no fear, Jisbon and GrigsPelt fans, they are subtle, closer to friendships than relationships)

* * *

A soft knocking startled Lisbon from her paperwork. She thought that everyone from her team had gone home, so she expected the person knocking on her office door was Jane, who spent more time in the office than anyone.

"Come in, Jane." Lisbon said, allowing the person knocking on her door to enter.

"Boss, it's me, not Jane. He left twenty minutes ago."

Looking up from her paperwork, Lisbon asked, "Why haven't you left yet, Rigsby? Is there something that you need?"

"I was wondering, as a friend, if you could give your advice. I mean, I understand if you don't consider me a friend, and that you might not want to, but I figured-"

"Sure. Stop rambling and get to the point. What do want to ask me?" Lisbon said, interrupting Rigsby's monologue.

"Say you were given an ultimatum- you had to choose between the person you love and your career. Which would you choose?"

"Honestly Rigsby, you aren't exactly asking me something that I can relate to. I choose my job because that's all that I have. Why do you ask?"

Ignoring her last question, Rigsby stated, "Then I'm sorry, but I find it necessary to give you my two weeks notice."

"Are you sure of this? I can get you a transfer to another unit if you wish. But I cannot give you a chance to change your mind once we make this official."

"Yes, I'm sure. The only additional thing I will ask you for is to send an honest recommendation to my next place of employment."

"I can do that." Digging through her desk drawer, Lisbon pulls out the resignation form. Handing it to him, she said, "I don't want to see this form back here until you are absolutely sure. Once I get this from you, you are taken off active duty, there is no turning back, and you have almost no chance of getting a job here again."

"Thank you boss, but I am absolutely sure. You shall see this back on your desk in the morning." Rigsby replied, taking the form. "Good night Lisbon."

"Good night Rigsby. I hope you're right." Lisbon replied, dismissing him from her office.

* * *

"Have you cut off your ties with the CBI yet?" The woman asked over the phone.

"Not yet. I will be free from active duty in the morning, and will be free to leave in two weeks." Rigsby replied in a whisper, since he was still at the CBI in the elevator on the way to the parking lot.

"Good. If you can, try to opt out sooner."

"I can't. People will get suspicious, and then start asking more questions than they normally would."

"Fine. I look forward to working with you in two weeks."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I forgot to mention that the first three chapters of this story were posted about a year ago, and taken down last November. I also forgot my disclaimer-I don't own The Mentalist and write this for my own entertainment, not for profit. I just want to thank all of you who left a review and/or added me to your various lists! One more thing-this story is not beta'd, so all mistakes are of my own stupidity.**

* * *

The next few days were quiet. Rigsby still had not told his teammates that he was leaving, there were no new cases, and there was a feeling of restlessness and tension in the bullpen.

Lisbon was filling out the last of her over abundant pile of paperwork that had accumulated during the previous case. She was interrupted by a soft knocking on her office door.

"Enter."

"You know I'm not one for office scuttlebutt, but you see, Rigsby's been acting strange and leaving almost before the shift ended. Van Pelt won't even look at him anymore and they only speak to each other when absolutely necessary. Honestly, I'm not sure what happened, but I have a feeling that Rigsby's done something horrendously wrong, and Van Pelt found out about it. I also noticed that you didn't act surprised when I started talking, so you know what happened." Cho said after closing the door and sitting down in the chair opposite Lisbon's desk.

"I see Jane has rubbed off on you. I'm not going to deny that I know what Rigsby did. He handed in his resignation a few days ago. I'm surprised he hasn't made that common knowledge by now-"

Lisbon was interrupted by Jane walking into her office. "You do realize that spending so much time behind closed doors could lead the rest of us to believe that there is more than just conversation occurring in here, right?"

"JANE!" Lisbon exclaimed, blushing profusely.

"You're blushing. I don t think red is your color. And Cho, I don t think green is yours either."

Cho decided to remain blissfully silent in this showdown in between Lisbon and Jane, although he didn't like that Jane accused him of being jealous.

"What do you need Jane?"

"Well, Teresa, I always love to see you blush."

"I'm not blushing." Lisbon interrupted, her blush returning at his use of her first name.

"My goodness woman, I was just wondering if I could entice you two lovebirds to joining Van Pelt, Rigsby, and I for pizza after work."

"Fine." Lisbon said, her cheeks still flushed after restraining herself from throwing something at him.

"Sure. You're paying, right?" Cho added, finally deciding to jump in to the conversation.

* * *

"Hey, it's five. Let's go get pizza!" Jane exclaimed, jumping up and down like a child.

"You've been saying that for the last twenty minutes. We will go when it is ACTUALLY five." Lisbon said, looking at the clock which said 4:57.

"Aww, come on! You're no fun!"

Exactly thee minutes later, Jane did the unthinkable...

He walked up to Lisbon, hooked his thumb through the belt loop on the back of her jeans as he stuck his hand in her pocket, and started guiding (more like dragging/pushing) her towards the elevator.

"JANE!" Lisbon exclaimed, face red from embarrassment and fury, arms trying to slap him away.

They had reached the elevator by then, and Jane exclaimed: "We're going to the pizza place on Fifth and Rose. Meet us there if you want pizza." Lisbon was still struggling as the elevator doors closed.

While Jane was pushing Lisbon towards the elevator, Cho returned from his excursion to Lisbon's office to retrieve her keys. He saw what Jane was doing, and decided that Lisbon could free herself if she wanted, and that she would give him hell for it if he tried to step in, so he decided to let this scene play out, and then give Jane a though verbal beating when she wasn't within earshot.

* * *

At the pizzeria, the team enjoyed a meal with light-hearted banter and conversation. Rigsby still had not told the team that he was leaving, but was still planning on it before the end of the night. Just as he began to speak, Lisbon's phone rang. "Saved by the bell"Rigsby thought.

"We caught a case. I'll fill you in on it on the way. Rigsby, can you get the bill this time?"

"Sure." He stayed in the pizzeria, and the rest of the team went out to their cars.

The team (minus Rigsby) met up in the CBI parking lot. Van Pelt went into the office to get her laptop and came back out.

"We're done here. Let's go." Lisbon said, getting into the CBI issued sedan.

"Wait. Aren't we missing someone?" Van Pelt asked, fully aware of the person missing from the car.

"No, we're not. If we don't leave now, we are going to miss our flight." Lisbon replied.

"Our flight?" Cho asked, once they were in the SUV.

"Yes. We have to fly down to the Mexican border. Apparently, someone had set fire to a watchtower and murdered all the on-duty Border Patrol personnel. They are severely short-handed, and since we're not on an active case, we were asked to come help with the investigation and help out the Border Patrol until they can get back on their feet.

"Wait. So why isn't Rigsby coming? Isn't he the arson specialist?" Van Pelt asked.

"Not anymore. He has to stay back and help Minneli find his replacement." Lisbon stated, assuming that she already knew that he was leaving (because of what Cho had told her earlier about Van Pelt's attitude).

"His replacement? He's leaving?" Van Pelt asked, her expression changing from one of concern to one of knowing. "He must have taken me seriously..."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter takes place immediately after the last one (I originally wrote these two chapters as one, but then decided it was too long, and split it into two...I guess I picked a bad place to split it). If anyone wants to beta this story, that would be awesome, just leave a review saying so or send me a private message. And... yeah, I'm actually grounded right now and shouldn't be on the computer, so this actually works for ya'll because it means I have more time to write.. On to the story!**

_FLASHBACK_:

"Come on Gracie! I know you're home! Just open the door!" was what she woke up, along with the loud pounding on her apartment door. Van Pelt stumbled through the darkness of her apartment to the door to let in a very different man than she was familiar with.

"Rigsby? What are you doing here? It's almost three in the morning." Van Pelt asked after being pushed back so he could enter the apartment.

He didn't answer... just pushed her up against the wall after slamming the door shut.

"RIGSBY! You're drunk! Put me down!" She exclaimed, trying to free herself from being stuck between him and the wall.

"Gracie I know that this seems forward, but I need to tell you that I love you." He said while trying to remove her nightshirt.

Van Pelt was starting to panic. Her training started to kick in as she came up with a plan to neutralize the situation. There was no way that she was going to let Rigsby do this.

"Rigsby, not here. Let's at least do this on the couch."

Surprisingly, he agreed, but started to drag her towards her bedroom instead. Van Pelt realized what he was doing, and needed to find and enact a Plan B. Instead of cuffing him to the coffee table where her cuffs and gun were, she was now going to lock him in her room until he sobered up. She was too busy scheming to notice two small packages fall out of his pocket.

As they got to the bed, she put her plan in motion. "Wayne, we should probably use protection... Let me go get it. I'll be right back, it's in the bathroom." She got up before he could, and practically ran out of the bedroom, making sure to close and lock the door.

Both physically and emotionally exhausted, and eternally grateful that she left her key to the bedroom in the drawer in the coffee table, she crashed on the couch and fell asleep instantly, still oblivious to the packages on the floor.

_END FLASHBACK_

"Van Pelt? What did you tell him? None of us know why Rigsby is leaving."

"I told him that if he wanted to pursue a relationship with me that he had to be the one who was to leave the CBI, not me... I told him that to scare him off. I didn't think he actually would." Van Pelt answered a little too quickly.

Jane knew that she was lying, but he didn't call her on it.

* * *

_FLASHBACK_:

She woke up confused. _'Why am I on the couch?'_ Then the previous night's events came back to her in a rush. She decided to check up on Rigsby seeing as he was fairly out of it when she locked him in her bedroom. She got the key out and started to walk to her bedroom when she spotted the two small packages. She was not naive enough to not know that those two packages contained drugs. More specifically, cocaine. What's worse, is that she had finally figured out that last night, he was not just drunk, but both drunk and high, which explained his very strange behavior.

Her thoughts were cut short when she heard Rigsby talking on the other side of the door...

"Yes I know that it was my job to deliver the product, but trying the people who I was trying to seal the deal with insisted on me testing some from every package ... I'm sorry. I don't even know where I am. I'm locked in a bedroom somewhere ... There is NO WAY I am going to call my boss to come save me. If she finds the two packages of product that I dropped somewhere between where I was last night and here, then I'm screwed, fired, and probably arrested..."

Van Pelt had heard enough. She unlocked the door and poked her head in like she didn't hear anything.

"I have to go...I'll call you back in a few. Bye boss." Rigsby said to the person on his cellphone.

"Who was that?" Van Pelt asked.

"Just one of my academy buddies. I worked for her before coming to the CBI. She still insists that I call her boss still..."

"Okay... So do you remember what happened last night?"

"No... But I'm going to take a stab at it and guess that I did something that I'm going to regret once you tell me, and that I dropped something that you found that will cost me my job if you say something about it..."

"Yeah, something like that. I suggest you resign from the CBI if you want to keep a respectable resume. I won't say anything this time, but if it happens again, I'm going to report you. I promise."

"I should probably go... any chance I can have the packages back?"

"Only because I don't want to be caught with them in my possession."

_END FLASHBACK_

The rest of the trip to the border was silent with Lisbon reviewing the case file, Cho with his nose stuck in his most recent novel, Jane entertaining the little boy in the seat across the aisle on the plane, and Van Pelt taking a nap.

* * *

"Hey boss, just calling you back" Rigsby said to the woman on the other end of his cell phone call.

"I have another job for you. Meet me at headquarters in Albuquerque. Your airplane ticket and fake ID are on their way. Pick them up tomorrow. Your flight is tomorrow night, so don't miss it."

"Ok. I'll be there." Rigsby said, ending the call.

* * *

The CBI team arrived with no further problems, and since it was still daylight, they went the the crime scene.

"Where do you need us to help out...?" Lisbon asked, fishing for the Patrolman's surname.

"We need you guys to pick up a few shifts this week and assist the local police with the investigation and it's Evan."

"Sounds like a plan. Where can we find a good restaurant?"

"I'd suggest that you try the Mexican restaurant about 20 minutes from here. You have NOT had authentic Mexican until you have eaten from El Restaurante de Gomez."

"Thanks! We're going to go to the hotel, settle in, get dinner, and then start tomorrow if that's alright with you?"

"Go right ahead, I'm sure you guys are exhausted. See you all tomorrow."

"Grace! Hold up for a minute, would ya? Jane called running up to Van Pelt, who was just leaving her hotel room."

"Sure Jane. What's up?" She asked as he arrived at her room.

"May I?" Jane asked, suggesting that they go in Grace's room.

At that moment, Lisbon rounded the corner and asked, "are you coming?"

"We'll meet you there, Grace here found something of mine and was just about to return it to me." Jane said, making it obvious that he was lying.

Lisbon, knowing that Jane had ulterior motives, she did not question his lie. Cho and Lisbon went to the restaurant without them.


	4. Chapter 4

**B/N: Thank you all for your RnR! I should let you know that I don't write chapters in order, so updates will continue to be sporadic. Also, this has a minor reference to the events of the episode "His Red Right Hand" from Season 2. This chapter and the next chapter will reference and slightly distort the actual events in this episode, so bear with me on that. I don't own The Mentalist, only my OCs. Enjoy!**

Jane ushered Van Pelt into her room and closed the door. Confused, Van Pelt turned around as soon as the door closed. Sensing her discomfort, Jane guided her to the desk in the room and she sat in the hard office-style chair. Jane sat on the edge of the desk, facing her.

"You know what's really going on with Rigsby, and you were covering for him on the way here. So if the reason why he left isn't for you, it's because of you-so why did he leave?" Jane asked, in his annoyingly accurate interrogative style.

"I should have figured that you would have caught my lie. To answer your question, he left because of me. I'm just worried about what will happen to him once this gets out. There's no way any law enforcement agency will have him now."

"Once this gets out?"

Van Pelt went on to tell Jane about what happened her flat.

* * *

In the car on the way to the restaurant, Lisbon's phone rang-she answered, and Cho tried his hardest not to eavesdrop. So in order not to overhear the conversation, he busied himself with the task of sending back the pictures of the scene that the local LEOs took to the CBI, more specifically to Rigsby. Rigsby would then offer his advice and expertise on the scene. Once he had finished the task, he studied Lisbon's face as she drove. While reading her face, he realized a few things. She is as good at hiding outward expressions of emotion as he is, and that whatever that phone call was about had troubled her greatly. He was about to ask her what was bothering her when they arrived at the restaurant.

The resturaunt was the type where one seats onself in the dining room, and was served the special of the day-in this case, burritos so spicy that a gallon of milk came complimentary with the food. You could tell it was authentic in food and heritage just by the decorations-plain, simple, and classy, rather than the more commonly found gaudy and over-the-top decorations of Mexican propaganda found in non-authentic resturaunts. Lisbon and Cho chose the small table in the corner near the door.

"So what's going on? You look really worried." Cho finally asked, after they got their food.

"It's just that I'm worried about Rigsby. He's been acting so strangely lately-and now he's just disappeared. He didn't show up for work today, so don't send him the crime scene photos yet-rather, don't send them at all. We'll wait for his replacement."

"Too late. I did that while you were on the phone in the car. I wonder what is going on with him... There is nothing in his file that would suggest he'd be into something illegal, yet he shows the signs of trying to hide something big-which can only be illegal."

* * *

She had her eye on him for a while before approaching him last month. Wayne Rigsby would put the final touch on her dream team. She met him back in the Police Academy, only then she went by the name Alexzandra Down. They were the top two of their class-and therefore were very competitive with each other-both academically and physically. She graduated first with Rigsby trailing a solid two points behind in second. After the academy, they worked together as partners as street cops until they both received promotions-him to the LAPD, her to the Border Patrol. They kept in contact for three years-even dated for a while. She got another job with a different agency, and could no longer keep up regular coorespondence with him. Their careers led them in different ways, and they lost all contact with each other. Now she is one promotion away from being eligible for the top position in her agency-not only her dream job, but the best of the best- to be the first female head of this particular government agency. She needed something major to happen to give her the final push-and she believed that her academy buddy could provide her with that final edge.

Down had put together the perfect team for her agency-hand-picked, top-notch men and women who are the best at what they do. All she needed was Rigsby to complete her dream team. Rigsby was the best arson specialist and undercover operations cop that she could get to easily and cheaply. He really was the best-she watched him while he was at the CBI-his reaction to the pain-in-the-ass consultant there had made him perfect. He followed all the schemes of the consultant and got the job done at the best of his ability-perfect for a disposible undercover agent. Her superior wanted to make sure that Rigsby was the best for the jon-so they gave him an initiation of sorts-to slip away from his current team unnoticed and commit a crime they couldn't solve-all while doing a task that the agency needed done-he exceeded expectation, but still had one flaw-he had a low drug tolerance and thus, acted irresponsibly. That flaw could be worked out with further training though. Down still marvelled at the fact that Rigsby went all out and burned down her old stomping ground-the first observation tower she was stationed at while on the Border Patrol. She was now waiting to meet him here in Alburquerque.

* * *

Lisbon and Cho went back to the hotel after they paid their bill for dinner. Lisbon still looked troubled, and when they got back in the hotel, she called Van Pelt and Jane in for a team meeting.

"Alright guys, there has been an incident at the CBI, and we have to go back early, since that has more priority than this. Bosco's team has found something really big in the Red John case, and there was a security breach in the building. Minneli has requested that we return tomorrow."


	5. Chapter 5

_Two Weeks Earlier_

The SCU team at the CBI was enjoying their usual "case-closed pizza" when Rigsby got a call from an unregistered number—the caller ID said it was restricted, but he would recognize that number any day of the week—it was his best friend and worst enemy from the academy—Alexz. He excused himself from the makeshift table made from Jane's and Van Pelt's desks pushed together and went to the break room to make his phone call private.

Van Pelt noticed that Rigsby had gone off for a while, and decided that she should go find him—she could no longer stand Jane's childish tricks and sleight of hand. She excused herself to go to the "rest room," and went off to find him.

She found him just leaving the break room, placing his cell back into his pocket. The way he looked at her just melted her heart into that delicious gooeyness of fudge brownies freshly removed from the oven. They exchanged a heated look, and she backed him back into the break room, where they passionately kissed for the third time since their relationship began.

He was finally ready to let their relationship progress, even with the risk of them getting caught. See, Rigsby didn't care about that anymore because he had just got off the phone with an old friend who had offered him a law enforcement job on the federal level—one of the smaller government agencies, the DEA. He wasn't planning on accepting the job unless Minnelli was planning on cracking down on their relationship. He also decided that he wasn't going to break the news to Grace until he was sure he was ready to commit to her and leave the CBI. He also decided that he would talk to Lisbon after work the next day for her advice—if she said stick with the job, he'd take the promotion. If she said to pick love, he'd stay and wait for Minnelli to give him and Van Pelt and a warning—or a choice.

_Present Day_

Rigsby was running late, a feat that seemed like a regular thing now that he had decided to take the DEA job. It was hard to juggle the CBI and the DEA, but he had to do it for a few more days. The DEA Director had given him a special task—to test out a new drug that surfaced. This drug had started to show up all over the coast, cut into both cocaine and heroin. This drug has recently been found in a meth lab too. The problem with this drug was that a milligram too much would kill anyone. In its original, potent form—a green, molasses-like substance that on the street was nicknamed green froth for the effect the poison had on its victim—it is quite deadly, and was gaining popularity as a way to kill in the drug cartel's turf wars and disputes in Mexico. The DEA feared that it would spread to the US, so Down's taskforce had been given the special instruction to wipe out all the cartel's sources in the US. Rigsby had been given a sample of it and was told to take out his coworker at the CBI—who would be in the lockup by the end of the week for killing her teammates, if he didn't stop her.

As per usual as of late, Rigsby was still trying to build up his tolerance for the drugs he was tasked with eliminating. His job in the operation was to get in the to the dealers' warehouses, sell the product, call in his team to arrest the dealers, and then set the place on fire to burn the drug supply. But first he had to finish at the CBI, and get close enough to kill the woman _before_ she got to Bosco and his team. Let's just say, Rigsby didn't make it in time to stop the murders.

Rigsby and the DEA got lucky—Lisbon's team and Minnelli believed that the deaths of Bosco's team was the fault of Red John, and their murderer's death blamed on one of his minions. They never suspected Rigsby of being the poisoner. However, Rigsby became paranoid that they would know it was him—that they had another dirty cop on their hands—first with the theft of all of Van Pelt's business cards, then with the accident at Van Pelt's flat, then the Border Patrol tower (burned down as a distraction so that the DEA could get in the green froth), and now the poisoning—it was an understandable paranoia. He decided that he wasn't going to look back once his time with the CBI was up in two days.

Jane knew something was amiss as soon as Red John's right hand lady had left his sight. No more than two minutes had passed before he heard the radio squeak to life, reporting the health emergency with the prisoner. He bolted to the stairs, descended them three at a time, and ran to the lockup, where he determined that she had indeed been poisoned. There was a rat in the CBI, Jane was now sure of it. _RIGSBY! _ The thought rushed in his head. He quickly dismissed the thought as irrational and unfounded—only, he was too caught up in the emotions of the moment to actually consider the possibility. Funny—his perception seemed to be off every time Red John was involved.

Since the whole Red John incident, the case load of the CBI teams has been very light. The AG seemed to trust the local cops and the Feds more than his own agency. He took his time installing a new director after Minnelli "retired." The AG wanted to make sure that the next director would be more competent than the last—and would keep his agency free from the infiltration of criminals. He had his eye on a few candidates, but would not choose one for at least another month.

Suddenly, his office phone rang. It was nearing the end of the day, and his secretary had already gone home. He ran his fingers through his thinning salt-and-pepper hair, and answered the phone—it was the Sacramento Chief of Police. Judge Taggart's wife was just found murdered behind an apartment complex. The AG now had no choice—he had to call in the CBI's SCU team because this case would shed even more bad light on the agency if he handed it off to another agency. He reluctantly made the call—calling the team leader personally since there was no director.

**A/N: This is the first time I have attempted to incorporate a story into the timeline of a season's episodes, so I don't know what kind of job I'm doing. Also, this story probably has made Rigsby quite out of character—so I'm sorry about that if it seems so. The next chapter will indulge in the case mentioned in the end of this chapter—and also, my disclaimer is this: I don't own The Mentalist, only my OCs.**


End file.
